Dan’s curious case of number nine

Dan Martin’s father, Neil believes his son’s Tour de France stage nine win on Sunday was written in the stars — and had everything to do with what he called ‘the curious case of number nine’.

“It’s that number nine, stage nine again isn’t it? he contests. “It’s the family’s lucky number, anything to do with nine seems to bring the family good luck, so the number nine, 18, 45, anything that adds up to nine or involves nine brings us luck and has been proven over and over again. He’s won a stage of the Tour, stage nine, and he also won stage nine of the Vuelta A Espana two years ago. It’s quite uncanny actually. A lot of the time number nine is involved. He’s in his 27th year, two plus seven?

“You can probably manufacture a nine out of most things but it is significant that he’s done stage nine of the Vuelta and the Tour...so get some money on him for the Giro d’Italia stage nine next year!”